High School Football: Eagles lose to O'Gorman

SPORTS

SIOUX FALLS - With next week's marquee matchup with Sioux Falls Lincoln looming, Friday's contest against Aberdeen Central had the makings of a trap game for the Sioux Falls O'Gorman Knights.

But five Aberdeen interceptions helped the second-ranked Knights capitalize to the tune of 27 points off turnovers for a 41-6 win, setting up a key game next Thursday with playoff seeding on the line.

Senior running back Flynn Donelan paced the O'Gorman ground game with 174 yards rushing and a touchdown on 21 carries while senior fullback Sam Steffl added 78 yards and a pair of scores on 15 carries.

Despite outgaining the Golden Eagles 376-146 in total yards from scrimmage, though, Knights coach Steve Kueter felt his team didn't come out with the same emotion as in past weeks.

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I was disappointed with the way we played in the first half, said Kueter. We didn't do things that we needed to do. We moved the ball OK on offense, but we just kind of shot ourselves in the foot before we got things going.

To some degree, the initial lack of energy could be felt as the Knights' run game trudged through a 12-play, 38-yard scoring drive that took nearly nine minutes to complete in the first quarter.

While Steffl punched it in for the first of his two 1-yard touchdowns, followed by a 3-yard plunge by Donelan, a 21-0 halftime lead didn't feel as such.

We were tight and didn't come out as intense as we wanted to, said junior linebacker Nic Steffl.

A Donelan fumble on the second half kickoff didn't help things either as the Golden Eagles (2-6) turned it into a 14-yard touchdown pass from Roman Orr to Jarib Johnson that cut the lead to 21-6 following a blocked extra point.

From there, though, it was pretty much all Knights beginning with a Nic Steffl interception returned 22 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter. O'Gorman (7-1) tacked on a 14-yard touchdown run by Jordan Hermanson with 10:29 left in the fourth before Connor Schaefbauer hit Adam Juhl for a 37-yard score with eight minutes to play.

Both fourth quarter touchdowns came after Aberdeen interceptions.

That happens to a team when you've only got a couple wins, said Golden Eagles coach Mike Flakus. Sometimes when something negative happens, you think 'Here we go again.'

To Aberdeen's credit, there wasn't much to be done against the amount of pressure the Knights continued to bring as the game wore on. Of the five interceptions tossed by the Eagles, three came as the result of the quarterback being hit as he threw or staring down the barrel of the blitz.

Our defense came out and played tough like they have all year, Kueter said. This was a team that I thought would put it up a little bit and we responded well.

As for Thursday's upcoming game against city foe Lincoln, Kueter admitted his team might have gotten caught looking ahead rather than staying focused on Aberdeen.

I thought tonight that we did start looking a little too much ahead, said the O'Gorman coach. There's no excuses now. We've got to be ready.